Mistletoe
by Took-Baggins
Summary: Noodle has always loved waking up to find the small tree with its little ornaments, but she has never known how it appears. This year, however, may be different. fluffy NoodleMurdoc


A/N okay, this is my first time adding Gorillaz fanfiction to the site, so i'd appreciate honest reviews. This is just a little Christmas story focusing on Murdoc and Noodle I wrote for my friend **Green Hope5.** (you should all go read her story 'Love and Stuff' it's great!)

Well, I apologize if Murdoc is too out of character, butI didn't want him to be all angry in this. Also, his accent spontaneously disappears sometimes shrugs mostly cause I'm not that great at writing accents.

I think we should all know by now who owns the Gorillaz. Not me, by the way...

x x x

Usually Noodle and Russel were the ones who made Christmas happen around Kong Studios. 2-D always forgot what he did with the gifts he'd buy, and Murdoc didn't celebrate it, so it was really up to them to make sure that everyone got something. Every year Russel would leave his gifts in a spare room and Noodle would add hers during the night (she loved how 2-D would wonder how they'd gotten there by themselves. Eventually he would declare that the little kids were right, and that it must have been Santa Claus).

In the morning they would come in to find a small tree, decorated sparsely with what looked like homemade ornaments, reflecting the friends themselves. Noodle had always made sure to stop and admire them. Her favorite was her own: a small, mischievous looking doll wearing her hair over her face and holding a sprig of mistletoe over her head. It was obviously her (though she'd never be so bold in dealing with mistletoe). She suspected that Russel was responsible for the tree, though she hadn't caught him at it yet.

Tonight it was a bit later than usual as she tiptoed towards the spare room, the three gifts for her brothers tucked securely in her arms. She reached the door and, finding it closed, fumbled with it until it swung open enough to get through.

"What're you doin' up?" she stopped, staring. The tree was there, bare and undecorated, and the few ornaments were laying on the floor around it, along with four carefully wrapped packages. Noodle blinked several times, her mind working out what she was seeing.

It was Murdoc.

"Wha...what are you doing with tree?" she asked, not quite sure whether she should believe it.

"Oh, uh...I was...y'know..."

"Not taking it down?" he didn't look surprised as he picked up an ornament.

"No, I'm not taking it down, Noodle."

"Then what you doing?"

"I'm putting it up, just like I always do." Noodle set her gifts next to the open door and joined him, still staring.

"Always?" she asked, astounded.

"Always."

"Every single year?"

"Yes, every single year."

"But why?" he paused halfway through fitting his ornament onto a branch and glanced at her.

"I don't know. I suppose cause it's Christmas. Even if I don't particularly like it doesn't mean the rest of you shouldn't celebrate." he turned the ornament around, admiring it. Noodle saw that it was the one she had always taken to be 2-D's: a small, blue colored puppy with dark, blank eyes and a sweet face.

"You make ornaments?" she asked, picking up a clay teddy bear with a yellow hat and a goofy grin on it's face. ("Russel" she thought).

"Yeah, when we first got together and I had a day when there wasn't much to do." he grinned lopsidedly, watching her string it up apart from his.

"Why didn't you tell us?" she asked. He paused again, this time thinking it over before stooping to pick up another ornament.

"I dunno. I guess I enjoyed watching everyone find it when they woke up. 'Specially you."

"Me?" he grunted and continued looking for a good spot for the ornament. She took this to mean he hadn't meant that to be out loud. "D thinks it's Santa Claus."

"Does 'e now?"

"Yes. He says it cannot happen without the uh magic." he smiled. "Whose is that?"

"'oose is 'at what?"

"Ornament?" he looked at it, casting her a sideways glance.

"Dunno know what you mean. It's nobody's." Noodle sighed patiently, knowing that he didn't want to admit he had made one for each of them. She pointed to the other two on the tree.

"That is Russel-san and that is 2-D. That one must be mine." Murdoc didn't say anything, so she picked up the last one. It was a wolfish-looking dog with mismatched eyes and slightly bared teeth. It was adorable and a little unnerving at the same time. "This is yours?"

"...Yeah."

"Can I put it on?"

"All right." she waited as he placed hers on the tree and hung his right next to it.

"There, together! Like now!" she grinned at him wondering what he thought of it as he stooped again to push his gifts underneath the low-hanging branches.

"Yeah, together." he didn't say anything else, so she ran to fetch her own gifts from the door. Placing them under the tree as well, she stepped back to admire it. "You'd think, with all the money we make, we'd go out and buy a tree."

"We could not find a more beautiful tree." honestly, this tree was a little scraggly. Murdoc had obviously gotten it himself, though, judging by how the bottom had been hacked off. Noodle though it was wonderful. He chuckled appreciatively.

"You're an 'orrible liar, Noodle." she pouted her lips and gestured at it.

"I am not lying! It is beautiful! You find it didn't you? That is better than buying one any day."

"All right...it is good, innit?" he said, glad to have someone to see it with. "You like it then?"

"I love it, Murdoc-san." he smiled at her, and she leaned against him happily, feeling his arm encircle her. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah."

"I am glad you do this for us. It is very special." he was silent as she spoke, but she was aware that he was stooping a little, so as to be on her level.

"A lot of people ask for specific things for Christmas. What do you want, Noodle?" hesitantly, she looked away from the tree to find him next to her, at exactly her height.

"What do I...want?" he nodded seriously, his arm still around her.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Noodle thought for a moment, raising her eyes to the ceiling as she considered it.

"I do not...huh?" she had spotted something hanging from the ceiling. A sprig of leaves and bright red berries.

Mistletoe?

"Can I tell you what I want for Christmas?" Murdoc asked, pulling her attention away from the ceiling. He pulled her closer and held her to him, closing the gap between them. It surprised her so that at first she wasn't sure how to react, but as she relaxed she wrapped her arms around his neck, knowing that this was exactly what she was supposed to be doing.

Spending Christmas Eve with her Murdoc.

x x x

"Christmas! Christmas! IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSS!" 2-D's voice rang through the building as he bolted through the halls, a candy cane clutched in one hand and a badly wrapped package in the other. Russel came after him, grumbling good naturedly at the singer's excitement.

"Man, can't you get up this easily the rest of the year? Usually we hafta drag you halfway 'cross the building..."

"Oh, but Russel! I remembered where I hid ev'ryfing this year! I have presents for you guys!"

"Good, I'm glad that makes you so happy." 2-D beamed at him and continued to run about, doubling back every so often like an excited puppy.

"Do you fink Noodle's already opening her gifts? I woke her up like I always do, but she was gone..." he barreled into the spare room ahead of Russel, stopping just short of trampling Murdoc where he was sitting in the floor, Noodle dozing on his shoulder. Russel looked them over questioningly.

"What happened? She decide to sleep in here this year?"

"Guess so." Murdoc shrugged as 2-D shook Noodle awake, grinning from ear to ear.

"Noodle? Noodle! There's Christmas all over the place! Come on!" she didn't take much effort to wake and soon enough everyone's gifts were in their own small piles in front of them. They looked to 2-D for the word, seeing as he enjoyed it the most they always let him start things off.

"Dig in!" he exclaimed, leading the flurry of torn paper, Russel and Noodle following suit. Murdoc watched them going at it for a moment (they were doing a lot more ripping than was really necessary). Pushing aside his present that he had wrapped for himself (he always gave himself something he already owned, so that the others wouldn't suspect him of being responsible for the extra gifts under the tree) he tore through his gifts. Russel had given him a dvd, and from 2-D he receive a hat and a pineapple (the singer had a tendency to include food in his gifts, for some strange reason).

The others had begun to compare their gifts, happy with what they had gotten. Noodle was spinning a yo-yo, a black toboggan with cat ears on the top pulled over her hair and a rainbow colored scarf wrapped around her neck. Those were the things that he had gotten her. Smiling to himself he picked up what she had given him, carefully pulling off the paper. In his hand he found a small, framed picture of the four of them, Noodle and himself right in the middle of it. 2-D and Russel's arms were draped over their shoulders, forming the pose into one big group-hug.

Looking up, he saw Noodle crouching in front of him, beaming. He couldn't see her eyes through her hair and hat, but he knew well enough that her smile had spread to them.

"Do you like it?"

"It's wonderful, love." her smile grew even wider as she leaned forward, putting an arm around his neck and pointing to the picture.

"See what I wrote?" he looked closely, spotting Noodle's neat scrawl in the lower corner. _My family. Love Noodle._

"You signed it, eh?" he chuckled. It caught in his throat when she kissed him on the cheek.

"Yes. I wanted to say...I love you...Besides, it is my favorite, because it is my family." Murdoc smiled, feeling happier that he had for a long time as he noticed 2-D and Russel watching them. He hugged Noodle warmly.

"I love you too, Noodle. You and my family."


End file.
